How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 608 - 264: The Consequences of a Head-On Clash

We have to recognize that Qin Miao currently has quite a significant advantage. On one hand, Qin Miao is on soft tires, and although this set of soft tires has been used for twelve laps, thanks to Qin Miao's tire management skill, his speed is still faster than Verstappen, who is on medium tires. Naturally, in the DRS zone, his acceleration will also be quicker.

Furthermore, during the time when Qin Miao has been trailing Verstappen, he hasn't overused his car's ERS energy.

On the other hand, Qin Miao's car engine was replaced with a brand new one last week at Spa. Although Red Bull also gave Verstappen a new set of car components to improve his performance at his home track, the Honda engine still falls slightly short compared to the Mercedes engine.

Do you understand the industrial aesthetic and the substantial power of the Mercedes engine?

Therefore, Qin Miao also has a certain advantage in acceleration.

Most crucially, Qin Miao has DRS.

So Qin Miao started accelerating using his car's intrinsic performance without Verstappen's slipstream, attempting to overtake Verstappen from the outside line.

Seeing this, Verstappen didn't waste his car's traction on the track for nothing. However, he didn't position himself in front to provide Qin Miao a slipstream either.

Instead, he firmly covered the inside line of the track.

This DRS zone between turns T10 and T11 at Zandvoort isn't particularly long. Verstappen felt that even if Qin Miao could go wheel-to-wheel with him with DRS, or even surpass him before the braking point, as long as he held onto the inside line and braked, Qin Miao's advantage would disappear completely.

Moreover, due to this aggressive acceleration, Qin Miao's set of soft tires would wear down significantly.

The situation on track played out exactly as Verstappen calculated. Despite Qin Miao having a speed advantage, without Verstappen's slipstream, and even having to deal with the turbulence from Verstappen's car sides, Qin Miao's closing speed wasn't fast. Coupled with the short DRS zone, Qin Miao indeed didn't completely overtake Verstappen before the T11 braking point.

However, before the T11 braking point, Qin Miao did manage to get half a car length ahead of Verstappen.

Afterwards, with the inside line taken, Qin Miao followed the normal braking line, while Verstappen braked late, doing nothing else but blocking the middle of the corner.

This naturally deprived Qin Miao of the best exit line, forcing him to take a wider arc and then cut for the T12 apex.

It's worth mentioning that Qin Miao was fiercely determined this time, and while exiting T11, he didn't give up his position, still remaining wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen.

Yet Verstappen used his late braking advantage to slightly get his nose ahead of Qin Miao.

At this point, Verstappen noticed that Qin Miao didn't intend to crossover but continued on the outside line, aiming to battle him in the next corner.

Thus, after the corner, Verstappen began to leverage his line rights to squeeze Qin Miao's line.

The idea was simple; if you have line rights, I won't push you off the track out of respect.

But now, I've braked later and entered the corner earlier; the line rights are mine. If you honestly don't contest for the inside line of the next corner with me, I won't act against you. But if you try to take the inside line of the next corner, don't blame me for being ruthless.

But Qin Miao wouldn't give in to Verstappen's moves. He seized any gap and moved into any opening ahead because with Verstappen braking late, his speed exiting the corner wasn't as fast as mine; I'm going to squeeze ahead of you into the corner.

Both had the intention of directly confronting one another, and what would happen after both held this thought goes without saying.

When both entered T12 side by side,

Verstappen squeezed towards the inside while Qin Miao took the best exit line, not avoiding at all.

Then, amid the exclamations from all the commentators watching this race, the cars of Qin Miao and Verstappen collided.

"Bang!"

"Crash!"

The clear sound of carbon fiber breaking reached Qin Miao's ears, accompanied by the sound of a tire bursting and the noise of rubble from the gravel bed striking the carbon fiber shell of the car.